Stephen Hawking wrote about the "the possibility that space-time is finite but had no boundary" (A Brief History of Time, 2011, p.120), and that "when one combines general relativity with the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics, it is possible for both space and time to be finite without any edges or boundaries". (A Brief History of Time, 2011, p.47) For finite+boundless space-time he used the surface of the earth as an analogy for a finite surface without boundaries where one ends up to the same location after following a straight line long enough.
What does this say about time? Apparently it is not like a line with a beginning and an end, so what is it like?
Is the beginning of time not defined, but just an instance after that is defined, like in an asymptotical function? Or is time somehow circular like in the analogy of the surface of the earth to describe space-time?
Is this finite/boundless space-time idea the generally excepted view today?